New Uniti Core

Stefan Vogt posted:

Phil Harris posted:

Core is strictly ripping and serving - not streaming.

Phil

So will there never be that nice button for internet radio on the CORE, Phil? &nbsp-;

Cheers,

Stefan

At this point in time it is planned that Core is - as above - to be strictly ripping and serving.

Whether additional functionality is incorporated later down the line is outside of my remit to discuss at this time.

Cheers

Phil

Thanks, Phil, - I'm sure you're working on the Ultra-CORE already... 

S.

I have considered buying a US for a while, and for sure I will turn my attention to the UC now, with it's ability of up to 8 TB storage. It looks like a top notch product to me.

 I have two questions:

1) What specifications should I look for in a HDD or SSD to put inside the Uniti Core?  Any specific brands that are known to work well with music generally and Uniti Core specifically?

2) I already have almost 6TB of hi-res and cd-quality music stored mainly as AIFF files (in addition to some DSD files). Should I bother converting AIFF to WAV before transferring the music to a CORE? Will WAV sound better? (I often find WAV does sound a tad more at-ease and resolved than AIFF from my Mac through my DAC-V1, but I have kept to AIFF for ease-of-use reasons in my system.)

Cheers,

Erlend

1. If I understood correctly NAIM will publish a list of tested and approved hard drives for the Core

2. No - nothing will be gained by converting AIFF to WAV. Two formats are practically equal to each other.

The naim site shows a Seagate 2000GB HDD inside the Core although the blurb confirms that up to an 8TB HDD can be used. I would hope that the Core uses a standard method for formatting the HDDs so they can be truly swappable.

Oddly, The Music Storage & Backup and the Power Supply sections of the information site are in Russian. 

Pcd posted:

Naim are currently evaluating hard drives for the core and will have
details shortly

How about SSD's then? What would be the core value of the Core if it wasn't for real SSD storage capability beyond a 16GB buffer?

Chag -

Erlend posted:

I have considered buying a US for a while, and for sure I will turn my attention to the UC now, with it's ability of up to 8 TB storage. It looks like a top notch product to me.

 I have two questions:

1) What specifications should I look for in a HDD or SSD to put inside the Uniti Core?  Any specific brands that are known to work well with music generally and Uniti Core specifically?

2) I already have almost 6TB of hi-res and cd-quality music stored mainly as AIFF files (in addition to some DSD files). Should I bother converting AIFF to WAV before transferring the music to a CORE? Will WAV sound better? (I often find WAV does sound a tad more at-ease and resolved than AIFF from my Mac through my DAC-V1, but I have kept to AIFF for ease-of-use reasons in my system.)

Cheers,

Erlend

Good question re AIFF and WAV on the Core.  

It is also not clear whether the files and metadata can be exported (irrespective of the file format used for downloaded files stored in the Core) if one decides to move on from the Core.

It would good get a response from Phil Harris.

Jude ;-)

Pcd posted:

I would imagine that the recommended list of hard drives will include SSD.

Hi Pcd,

We will be putting together a list of drives (both HDD and SSD) that we have tested the Core with.

Cheers

Phil

Chag... posted:

Pcd posted:

Naim are currently evaluating hard drives for the core and will have
details shortly

How about SSD's then? What would be the core value of the Core if it wasn't for real SSD storage capability beyond a 16GB buffer?

Chag -

I've had mine running with a 1Tb Sandisk SSD and it was fine ...

In my own testing I haven't yet found a SATA drive that it hasn't worked with - whether that be a 2.5" SSD, 2.5" 'laptop' HDD or 3.5" HDD...

Phil

Jude2012 posted:

Erlend posted:

I have considered buying a US for a while, and for sure I will turn my attention to the UC now, with it's ability of up to 8 TB storage. It looks like a top notch product to me.

 I have two questions:

1) What specifications should I look for in a HDD or SSD to put inside the Uniti Core?  Any specific brands that are known to work well with music generally and Uniti Core specifically?

2) I already have almost 6TB of hi-res and cd-quality music stored mainly as AIFF files (in addition to some DSD files). Should I bother converting AIFF to WAV before transferring the music to a CORE? Will WAV sound better? (I often find WAV does sound a tad more at-ease and resolved than AIFF from my Mac through my DAC-V1, but I have kept to AIFF for ease-of-use reasons in my system.)

Cheers,

Erlend

Good question re AIFF and WAV on the Core.  

It is also not clear whether the files and metadata can be exported (irrespective of the file format used for downloaded files stored in the Core) if one decides to move on from the Core.

It would good get a response from Phil Harris.

Jude ;-)

Hi,

The Core will be able to serve both AIFF and WAV files so there is no requirement to convert the AIFFs to WAVs for the Core.

The rips made by the Core are made available in the same way as they currently are on the UnitiServe so they will be as lossless WAV / FLAC (depending on your ripping settings) with the option of the parallel MP3.

Cheers

Phil

Up! I feel we need to keep this dedicated thread up and alive. The Introducing Uniti, our revolutionary new streaming platform is a Featured Topic but too generic of a thread. 

Hence an open question: UC SSD or HDD?

Chag -

Chag... posted:

Up! I feel we need to keep this dedicated thread up and alive. The Introducing Uniti, our revolutionary new streaming platform is a Featured Topic but too generic of a thread. 

Hence an open question: UC SSD or HDD?

Chag -

The really dedicated investigator can try both! I think this thread, or another similar one more likely will get a lot more interesting when some of us actually have Cores in our systems!

best

David

Robbor posted:

May I just double check if the Core stores music in the same format as the UnitiServe, 

that, is:

 

• .wav files and album art in folders for each album?

 

• And will it share the Music folder as a Network drive which can be accessed via PC or Mac?

 

Many thanks,

 

The now previous range of servers could be accessed  an music played from computers on the  network, so nothing new here.

Claus  

Claus-Thoegersen posted:

Robbor posted:

May I just double check if the Core stores music in the same format as the UnitiServe, 

that, is:

 

• .wav files and album art in folders for each album?

 

• And will it share the Music folder as a Network drive which can be accessed via PC or Mac?

 

Many thanks,

 

The now previous range of servers could be accessed  an music played from computers on the  network, so nothing new here.

Claus  

Are downloaded files (i.e. those not ripped by the Core) also stored in the Core in the same structure (i.e. a folder for each album)?

Also, on the face of it, if the Core can access a directory/folder of another computer on the same network, I can see no particular need to have a large HDD/SSD in the Core itself (unless there is a large amount of ripping to be done).  Is this right? 

Jude

audio1946 posted:

the market for ripper/hard drive is not on the top of the list. because a few years down the road and the increase of high rez downloads  makes it hardly worth it,BUT very smart one box solution of naim pedegree will fly of the shelf

I do not see the real highres market moving forward. A lot of questionable remasters from tapes, that may or may not  be worth the high prices for highres files. The dsd market has taken the prices to to unrealistic levels, but the religious dsd croed does not seem to mind.

My ns01 has worked with highres files since I got it back in  2011, but not dsd files.

Claus

So will there be something like an Ultra Core (speak HDX2) in future?

T38.45 posted:

So will there be something like an Ultra Core (speak HDX2) in future?

It's not likely that Naim will comment on future products ...

Klout10 posted:

T38.45 posted:

So will there be something like an Ultra Core (speak HDX2) in future?

It's not likely that Naim will comment on future products ...

Klout10 is of course right, but we can speculate if we want to and I suspect that the market for an HDX2 would be too small.  Don't forget that now, unlike when the HDX was introduced, almost everyone has a smartphone or tablet that makes the display and control part of the HDX unnecessary and there are numerous streamer and DAC options available out there, whereas that wasn't the case when the HDX was conceived.  The HDX is pretty expensive compared with a Uniti Core even when you add the HD.  The Uniti Core is presented as being "industry reference", ie the best, so my guess is that there will never be an HDX version of a ripper/server/player on the new platform.

best

David

I love frontpanel controlling- i really miss this on my Aurender and i missed it on my Klimax DS ��

T38.45 posted:

I love frontpanel controlling- i really miss this on my Aurender and i missed it on my Klimax DS ��

I know what you mean, but for many people being able to control what's playing from a tablet while sitting in their armchair will be more compelling than crouching in front of a stack of Naim boxes in a rack.  The Uniti range isn't intended to be used in a rack, so I can see why that might be different, rather like I use the volume control on the front of the SuperUniti which is on the desk in my office far more often than I use the same control on the 272 in my sitting room.

best

David

Jude2012 posted:

Are downloaded files (i.e. those not ripped by the Core) also stored in the Core in the same structure (i.e. a folder for each album)?

Hi,

They're stored in whatever folder structure you want - Downloaded files are not reorganized by the Core, they are simply indexed using the file tags so you can have the files themselves organized however you wish, whether that's <Artist>/<Album>/<Tracknum - Trackname> or every file thrown into a single directory or anything in between. 

Jude2012 posted:

Also, on the face of it, if the Core can access a directory/folder of another computer on the same network, I can see no particular need to have a large HDD/SSD in the Core itself (unless there is a large amount of ripping to be done).  Is this right? 

Jude

You can put whatever storage you want internally and have it back up to an external NAS or USB drive - if you don't want to put storage in it you don't have to. You can rip to a NAS if you want without internal storage.

Phil

Phil Harris posted:

Jude2012 posted:

Are downloaded files (i.e. those not ripped by the Core) also stored in the Core in the same structure (i.e. a folder for each album)?

Hi,

They're stored in whatever folder structure you want - Downloaded files are not reorganized by the Core, they are simply indexed using the file tags so you can have the files themselves organized however you wish, whether that's <Artist>/<Album>/<Tracknum - Trackname> or every file thrown into a single directory or anything in between. 

Jude2012 posted:

Also, on the face of it, if the Core can access a directory/folder of another computer on the same network, I can see no particular need to have a large HDD/SSD in the Core itself (unless there is a large amount of ripping to be done).  Is this right? 

Jude

You can put whatever storage you want internally and have it back up to an external NAS or USB drive - if you don't want to put storage in it you don't have to. You can rip to a NAS if you want without internal storage.

Phil

And if the active store is in the Core, you can feed a rendered output direct to a DAC without having to stream it across a network, so completely avoiding the risk of experiencing the problems and hassle that crop up regularly on these forums.

It would appear to be Naim's alternative to the Melco, though only time will tell if the sound is as good.